


Like Calls to Like

by chickadee



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo, The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-06 21:58:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11609778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chickadee/pseuds/chickadee
Summary: After Nina's return to Ravka, she and Sturmhond venture across the sea again to return Matthias' body to Fjerda.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *This contains spoilers for everything! Don't read it if you haven't made it through Crooked Kingdom or all of the Grisha Trilogy!*
> 
> I'll be posting this over on Tumblr as well if you want to check it out over there too: @ablackbirdsinging

Nina stood at the bow of the ship with Genya, taking measured breaths of the briny sea air. Between the ship’s crew, the refugee Grishas, Kuwei, the members of the Triumvirate, and Matthias’ still body in the ship’s hold, Nina was beginning to feel claustrophobic.

As she often did when she stood above deck, Nina felt Sturmhond’s eyes on her, assessing her the way he assessed everything - the sails, the stars, the weather, his crew.

She was no stranger to the gaze of men, but there was something cool in Sturmhond's eyes which made Nina think him impervious to the curve of her hips, the swell of her breasts.

Frankly, it was a relief.

He picked his way across the deck, murmuring words to the sailors and the Grisha working up top.

“Morning,” Genya said, looking up with a smile as he approached.

“We should be pulling into port by the end of day tomorrow,” he said by way of greeting. Nina loosed a relieved breath and he eyed her curiously. “Not much of a sailor, Zenik?”

“I'll just be glad to set my feet back down on Ravkan soil again,” Nina replied. A wide smile broke across Sturmhond’s face, softening his sometimes strange features.

“Me too,” he murmured as he walked away. “Me too.”

Nina turned back to Genya who was watching the privateer’s retreating form almost sadly.

“I’d thought he’d be… bigger.” Nina said. Genya huffed out half a laugh.

“He used to be, once,” she said with a shrug.

“Do you know him well, then?” Nina asked.

“Not well, exactly. Our history is...complicated.” Nina raised a sharp eyebrow.

“Not like that!” Genya laughed. “We never, I swear! But I've known him a long time. Before...and after.”

“The war?” Genya bit her lip, her eye thoughtful.

“Yes, that too.” Nina didn't press the subject. She didn't know what role Sturmhond had played, exactly, but she was familiar with the things the Grisha had endured during the Ravkan Civil War. The war had changed people, changed the country she loved. And it seemed even the coolest and most confident of privateers hadn't been immune to its horrors.

\----

Nina hadn't wanted to even go back to the Little Palace once they returned to Ravka. She was eager to find another ship to take her and Matthias’ body to Fjerda as soon as possible. But Zoya and Genya were insistent that she rest at the Little Palace for a while. Only there would they be able to find a healer to prepare Matthias’ body for another long sea voyage. Genya had done what she could before their trip to Ravka, but her knowledge on the subject was pretty limited. So Nina reluctantly agreed to return with them to the Little Palace before setting out again. She had to admit the idea of a couple weeks with solid ground under her feet again sounded nice.

“And besides, the King will surely want to be briefed on the happenings in Ketterdam, right?” Genya and Zoya shared a conspiratorial look.

“Right,” Genya said with a small laugh. She was practically hopping from excitement to see David after her time away. The thought of Genya and her Fabrikator love lightened Nina’s heart as they approached the palace walls.

\----

The day after Nina’s return to Ravka, she was called before King Nikolai. Genya had already secured a new kefta for Nina to wear, and she smoothed it nervously as she walked through the King’s throne room.

Darker than the typical Heartrender red by a few shades and embellished with swirling black embroidery along the back, the beautifully-crafted garment belied Nina’s new dark affinity.

The King watched her as she approached with a suppressed grin. Of course he didn't need to be briefed on the happenings in Ketterdam, as he'd been there himself wearing Sturmhond’s face. But his Grisha Triumvirate was insistent that he continued the ruse, even in the midst of their own trusted Grisha.

“Miss Zenik,” Nikolai said as she came close and sketched a stiff bow. She had always seemed at ease around Sturmhond’s ship, if a bit reserved with the other travelers. It was strange to see her dressed up in the Grisha formal wear with her dark curls piled atop her head. “Squaller Nazyalensky has been filling me in on the events of the last several weeks. It sounds like we have you to thank for the recovery of several expatriate Ravkans, as well as the safety of Kuwei Yul-Bo.”

“Of course I didn't act alone,” Nina demurred. “And of course it wouldn't have been possible without Zoya, Genya, and Sturmhond.” Zoya nodded in her direction, but Genya was missing from the room. Nina suspected she and David were still enjoying their reunion at the Little Palace.

“Still, your actions were very admirable in the face of the challenges in Ketterdam. Will you be returning to your role in the Second Army, now that you've returned to Ravka?”

Nina rubbed a slippered foot awkwardly on the floor tiles in front of her.

“Actually, Your Majesty, I have a personal matter to attend to first. My -” she cleared her throat uncomfortably. “My close friend lost his life in the fighting in Ketterdam. I wish to return his body to Fjerda as soon as possible.”

The King’s golden eyebrows rose up into his hairline.

“I don't suppose I need to tell you that Grisha such as yourself are not well-received in Fjerda. We've suspended the ships on our northern trade route in light of the tensions abroad. There are of course no passenger ships going out to Fjerda either.”

Nina shook out the stiff cuffs of her kefta.

“I was hoping I might convince Sturmhond to take me actually.” She said quietly. “He seems to have only a sliver of self-preservation. He might not find the trip entirely impossible.”

King Nikolai’s hazel eyes lit up a bit.

“No, I suppose he wouldn't find it impossible at all. Shall I make a formal request on your behalf?”

Nina’s cool formality lifted like a veil at that.

“Oh, could you?” She looked like a girl again, staring up at him with so much unbridled hope that Nikolai suddenly found it hard to meet her eyes. He shrugged.

“He owes me about a million favors. I'll send a letter right away.”

“Thank you so much, Your Majesty.”

“Of course,” Nikolai nodded. “If that's all, then you may go. I'll be in touch when I hear from Sturmhond.” Nikolai could almost feel Zoya rolling her eyes from beside his dais.

Dismissed, Nina turned to go and the rooms’ torches shone upon the back of her kefta. Black embroidery crept from the hem toward her neck in a dark, swirling riot amid the rich, wine red fabric. The sight sent a shiver up Nikolai’s spine. His fingers itched inside his ever-present gloves. It felt, suddenly, like the twist of scars and the dark shadows in his blood had reared up again. His arms, his chest, the backs of his shoulders suddenly felt too hot, too constricted by his finely tailored clothes. As the dark Heartrender swept from his throne room, Nikolai’s eyes watched her go with an intensity he hadn't felt in years.

\---

Two nights later, Nina had just returned to her room after dinner when there was a knock at her door. Some of her old classmates had been stopping by since her return to hear about her adventures being captured by the druskelle, then gallivanting around Ketterdam for a year.

But when she pulled open the door, Sturmhond was leaning against the door frame.

“Hi,” she said, somewhat awkwardly. His mouth quirked up into a lopsided smile.

“Hi,” he responded. “Uh, can I come in?”

Nina cast a backwards glance at her small room, and shifted to block it from Sturmhond’s line of sight.

“Can you give me a minute?”

“Yeah that's fine,” but she was already shutting the door in his face.

For someone who arrived in the country with almost no worldly possessions less than a week ago, she had amassed a giant collection of shoes, dresses, tunics, capes, hair ties, and undergarments which were currently strewn across every available surface of her room. There was also more than one serving tray of days-old tea and pastry crumbs haphazardly stacked on the small desk.

Without a second thought, she swept as much of the clutter behind the dressing screen and anything that wouldn't fit got kicked under the bed. She straightened the quilt across the bed and fluffed a pillow, then her hair. There was no help for her clothes - a drab and ill-fitting tunic and olive leggings, but he had seen her in worse aboard the ship. Her new kefta might have helped a bit, but it was somewhere buried in the heap of clothes relocated to the corner of her room.

With a deep breath, she yanked her door back open. Sturmhond was still lounging in the same position she'd left him in a moment before.

She plastered on her best “House of the White Rose” smile and gestured to the room behind her.

“Come in. Welcome to my humble abode.”

His calculating gaze swept over her room.

“It's very… homey.”

“Well, we can't all call a shockingly well-appointed and lavishly furnished pirate ship home.”

“It’s privateer, actually.”

“Alright, shockingly well-appointed and lavishly furnished _privateer_ ship.”

“That has a nice ring to it actually. I'd like that engraved on a plaque,” he said as he perched on the edge of her desk beside a cup of yesterday’s tea with a dead flying floating in it. He poked the cup with one gloved finger and watched the fly slosh around.

“I didn't know the serious pirate captain could make a joke.” She fixed him with a wicked smile, a challenge.

“Privateer, dear. And I'm not joking. You'll know when I am because it will be hilarious.” He looked up from the disgusting tea cup and returned her wicked smile. Nina couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up and out into the small space.

“What are you doing here?”

“I heard you had a proposition for me.” His ruddy eyebrows arched into his ginger hairline in an expression that was vaguely familiar. Nina had enough good grace to blush at the innuendo.

“You got the King’s letter?”

“Actually, I showed up before he'd had a chance to send it. But he filled me in and suggested that you wouldn't be discouraged from the task. He assured me that you were already well aware that your plan to show up in Fjerda was pure madness.”

“I've been told you're an expert at mad plans,” Nina said coyly, picking at the hem of her tunic.

“By whom?” She could hear the smile in his voice without looking at him.

“By the other expert of mad plans.”

“Kaz Brekker, I assume?”

“Of course,” and he looked up to meet her eyes. They were shining with that light again, that hope that he had seen in the throne room. He shook his head to clear his mind.

“He humbles me. We’ll take my smallest and fastest ship.”

“Wait, what?” Her eyes became glassy with unshed tears.

“Honestly, I’d rather take one of the flying craft but the weather that far north is too unpredictable. Maybe if we waited till spring, but still, if we went down in Fjerdan waters and couldn't get airborne again, we’d be, well, fucked. So a traditional ship is our best bet. We’ll take a skeleton crew and I won't force any of the Grisha to travel with us. I'll ask for volunteers, of course, but I can't guarantee that any of them will want to take the risk. In the last month the situation in Fjerda has become even more unstable.”

“I understand,” Nina said. A relieved tear spilled down her cheek. “Why are you doing this?”

“Well, when the King asks so nicely…”

“Right,” she sniffed, “because you owe him a million favors.”

“Did he say that? Ridiculous. He owes _ME_ a million favors.” Nina shook her head, laughing.

“I guess I don't really care why you've decided to help -” but he cut her off.

“You have a lot of heart, Zenik. I like that. And I think what you're doing for Matthias is very honorable.” Another tear rolled down her cheek. “I have some business to handle for the King over the next week or so, but I'll start making preparations for the journey. I'll send correspondence when I have a better idea of our sail date.”

He hopped off the corner of the desk where he'd been perched and headed for the door. Nina followed, wringing her hands.

“Thank you for this, Sturmhond. Truly.” He shrugged.

“Call me Niko.”

“Niko?” There was a devilish light in his bright green eyes.

“You didn't think my mother named me Sturmhond, did you?”

“I didn't know people like you had mothers, actually.”

Sturmhond - no, Niko’s - laughter echoed down the hallway as he walked away, leaving Nina to her small, disheveled room again.

\----

“This is a terrible idea.”

“I haven't asked for your opinion, Zoya.”

“You've barely been back a week and already you want to go off gallivanting for no reason.”

“I _still_ haven't asked for your opinion, Zoya. And besides, it's not ‘no reason.’ Not to her. She made a promise.”

“A promise that has nothing to do with _you_.”

“I like when people keep their promises,” Nikolai insisted stubbornly.

“Believe me, we all do, Nikolai. It doesn't mean _you_  have to be the one to take her.”

“There's no one else who can.”

“If it’s truly that dangerous then all the more reason that you shouldn't go,” Zoya stomped her foot to punctuate her point.

“Do not treat me like a child, Nazyalensky.”

“Then stop acting like one. You're no longer the spare second son who can waste his time playing pirate captain. _Privateer_ , I know I know. Don't waste your breath. I shouldn't have to tell you that you're the King now and -”

“Yes, and as the King -” But Genya cut him off.

“Can you two stop arguing for a moment so I can concentrate? If you keep scowling like this I'm going to end up marring one of your beautiful features. On accident, of course.” Genya was removing the Sturmhond tailoring he’d asked her to work up a few hours before. Her hands worked across his face, returning his features to that of the King.

Zoya bit her lip and restrained herself for a whole minute before she started talking again.

“Your people need to see you on the throne.”

“My people need many many things from me, Zoya, and I cannot give all of them all of what they want. But in this specific instance, I can give one of my people exactly what she wants. And I'm the only one who can.”

“Are you fucking her, Nikolai?” Genya’s hands on his face stilled.

“Really, Zoya?” Genya said as she shot a critical look at the Squaller.

“I apologize. That was uncouth. Are you making sweet, passionate love to her, Your Majesty?”

“If I was, that would be my business alone. Not a matter for the Triumvirate. But the answer is no.” Genya’s hands stilled on his face. “What? Spit it out Safin.”

“Well, do you want to?” He could have sworn Zoya was biting her lip to keep herself from bursting out laughing.

“Do you two plan ways to gang up on me, or does it just come that naturally to you?”

\----

Nina made her way to the Corporalki workshops the next morning. She was meeting with a Grisha named Annushka who had taken on the task of preparing Matthias’ body for preservation and eventual burial once they returned him to Fjerda.

Nina had once called the Corporalki labs home when she was a student at the Little Palace, and not much had changed. She picked her way to the desk Annushka called hers.

“Nina, it’s great to see you again.”

“Hello, Annushka. I got your message. Did everything go ok?”

“Yes, all went to plan. The body is prepared and one of David’s apprentices brought a box over just yesterday. It will keep the humidity stable aboard the ship to make sure everything stays intact on the journey over.”

Nina swallowed thickly and nodded her thanks. She never imagined she'd be barely an adult and preparing to bury her first love.

“Would you like to see him before we seal the coffin?”

“I - I don't think so, if that's alright.” She had said her goodbyes in Ketterdam.

“Of course,” Annushka reached out to grip her hand. “I'm sorry for your loss, Nina.”

“Thank you, Annu.”

“Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Nina bit the inside of her cheek. There was something else she was wondering.

“Genya said you would be the best to work with Matthias’ body because you're particularly well-suited to working with the, um, dead.”

“Yes, I've always struck a bit of a balance between the Heartrenders and the Healers. Not interested in killing, but not best equipped for medicine and healing, either.”

“I see,” Nina tapped her foot nervously. She liked Annushka, but she wasn't sure how much she could confide in the Grisha seated across from her. “As you know, I trained as a Heartrender here a few years ago before leaving to join the Second Army.” Annu nodded. “But recently I've found that my power has changed. I'm much more in tune with the dead, than the living. In fact,” she dropped her voice low, “I’ve found that I can actually move the dead.” Annushka, to her credit, kept her expression carefully guarded.

“Bring them back, you mean?”

“Not exactly,” although she remembered the moments that she'd tried and almost succeeded with Matthias. “More like, re-animate. I could cause a corpse to get up and walk around, like a marionette. Have you ever heard of other Heartrenders with such affinities?”

Annushka shook her head.

“Not exactly. My own power is much more limited. In the most basic terms, I can isolate and arrest the decomposition of the dead cells. That's why I'm well suited to the work you needed done with Matthias. But I've heard of others who possess a stronger affinity for working with the dead. Those who can manipulate the appearance of a corpse, extract internal organs for study, or even transplant, from the dead. But nothing as large scale as what you've described. To re-animate a corpse.” She let out a low whistle. “The power that must take is astronomical.”

Nina shrugged off the praise.

“Well thank you, Annu, for everything. The work on Matthias’ body, as well as the extra information. I'd appreciate if you could keep this confidential. I'm still working through what my new abilities mean.”

“Of course, Nina. If I hear of anything else on the topic, I'll let you know.” Nina nodded her thanks again and headed back to her own quarters, with thoughts of Grisha who worked with the dead milling about in her head.

\----

Nina was a little bit drunk. She swayed down the hall laughing with two other Grisha her age, on their way to their rooms. Maybe she was more than a little bit drunk, actually.

Suddenly Naomi beside her froze.

“Why didn't you tell us you had a tall, red-headed man friend, Zenik?” Sturmhond leaned against the wall across from the door to her room, his gloved hands tucked into the pockets of his trousers.

“Oh him? He's no one. Just renowned sea captain and scourge of the seas, Sturmhond. Maybe you've heard of him?”

“Saints, Nina. Send him to my room when you're done with him, then.” The women giggled as Nina left them behind to approach Sturmhond.

“Did you just call me ‘scourge of the seas’?” He asked her in a low voice as she sauntered toward him. She nodded with a smile. “I take back what I said about calling me Niko. I only want you to call me that from now on.”

Nina laughed and opened the door to her room, gesturing for him to follow.

“Your wish is my command, Most Excellent Pirate Captain, Sir.”

“I like you like this, Zenik.” She turned to him with mischief in her eyes.

“Like what? Drunk? Reeking of kvas and pickled herring? Wearing a low cut dress that barely contains my tits?”

His gaze lowered very slowly to her cleavage and then very slowly back up to her face.

“I was going to say ‘laughing’ but now that you mention it…” She laughed louder at that and stepped away from Sturmhond to reveal the disaster of her room.

“Did you get in a fight with a Squaller? It looks like a tornado came through here. Did the Little Palace fire all of their housekeeping staff?”

“Austerity measures,” she said with a shrug.

“Well I'm glad they’re not skimping on kvas in the dining room, at least. You do smell like liquor and pickled herring, you know.”

“When in Ravka?” He smiled, looking around for a place to sit. With every available flat space covered in clothes and clutter, he sat awkwardly at the end of her unmade bed. She bounced next to him.

“What business, then?”

“The ship and crew are almost ready. We can leave in two days.”

“Wonderful, I'll start, uh, packing my belongings.”

"You'd better start right away. It looks like it could take a while,” he said surveying the mess.

She leaned in close to him, until her messy curls were nearly brushing his shoulder.

“As soon as I get you out of my bed, I'll begin.” He loosed a ragged breath and ran one gloved hand over his red hair.

“Are you doing this on purpose to unnerve me?” His gaze was steady on hers.

“Yes. Is it working?”

“Yes!” They laughed together, fierce blushes crossing both of their faces.

“I'll see you in two days, then.”

“Two days,” he confirmed with a nod.

As she walked him to the door, Nina puzzled over something.

“I thought you were going to send me a letter about the plans,” she said as he started to walk out the door. He paused, shoulders stiffened. Then without turning around to look at her, he shrugged his shoulders.

“I just wanted to see you again.” And then he was gone.

That night, for the first time since Matthias’ death, Nina did not dream of snow and pines and wolves and blue eyes. Instead, on the waves of sleep, she sailed with the green eyes and clever smile of the boy she called the scourge of the seas.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew set sail back to Fjerda to bury Matthias' body. Sexual tension ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to follow along with this story over on my Tumblr if you'd like! @ablackbirdsinging

Genya finished her work on Nikolai’s face in the early morning hours. 

“I don't believe I need to tell you how important it is that you wear Sturmhond’s face when you dock in Fjerda.”

“I know, Genya.” He'd been over the plan with the Triumvirate again and again in the last few days. 

“Tolya has a kit with everything he'll need to fix you up as you approach Fjerda. He should probably start a few days before you approach the shore. He doesn't have the stamina for Tailoring that I do.” Nikolai nodded and rubbed a gloved hand over his rough hewn features.

“Do you think she'll mind?” 

“That the man she's roped into taking her on a dangerous journey across the sea is actually her King?” 

“That I've been lying to her.” Genya bit her lip.

“Nina’s no stranger to wearing masks herself. And yet, you know why you're taking her, Nikolai. She's lost her closest friend, her lover. That's what this trip is about. It's not a pleasure cruise on the love boat.”

“You sound like Zoya right now.”

“Well, she occasionally knows what she's talking about.” Genya ran a hand across her scarred face. “I don't want you to get hurt, Nikolai. Neither does Zoya, for that matter. We know the last few years have been hard on you. I don't know what you want from Nina, but I hope you know that she may not be ready to give it yet.”

“I know that. I do. And I don't really know what I want either. I just feel drawn to her,” he shrugged, embarrassed. He'd never needed to seek help in the romance department before. 

“Well, be careful, Nikolai. We expect you back in one piece as soon as you can manage it.” 

He gave her a mock salute. 

“Yes, ma’am.”

\----

Oh Saints it was way too early in the morning. Nina slumped up the gangplank, shielding her face from the unrelentingly rising sun. Tamar and Tolya lugged her trunk up behind her. The coffin containing Matthias’ body had been stowed in the ship’s hold the night before.

Sturmhond stood at the ship railing as she came aboard, the breeze ruffling his coat and hair. She held up a hand before he could speak to her. 

“No talking pirate boy. It's too early for everything. Just point me in the direction of the nearest pot of tea.” 

“Ah, a morning person. Lovely.”

“Tea, Sturmhond!”

“Follow me, new girl. I'll take you down to the kitchen,” Nadia said as she swept by in her blue kefta. 

“Hands off the Squaller, Zenik. She's spoken for,” Tamar shouted over her shoulder as she and her brother hefted the trunk up onto the deck. “What is in here, anyway? Chunks of granite?” She muttered to herself.

Nadia led Nina through a maze of hallways and ladders before finally depositing her in the ship’s kitchen. For being the smallest of Sturmhond’s fleet, the ship certainly had no lack of hidden nooks and crannies. And he certainly hadn't skimped when it came to the kitchen area. 

Nina breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the tea service set up on the wide wooden table.

“Thank the Saints,” she muttered as she poured herself a cup of tea. The Squaller slipped onto the bench across the table from her and grabbed a tea cup as well.

“Don't worry. You'll figure out the layout of the ship quickly. It's pretty straightforward once you’ve had time to walk it all a couple times through.”

“Now that I’ve had some tea, I should be much more capable,” Nina laughed. She eyed the pretty Squaller sitting across her. “Why did you decide to come? I assume you received ample warning about the Fjerdan views on Grisha?” 

Nadia sipped her own tea and blushed.

“Where my love goes, I go.” She said simply.

“Love? Who? Sturmhond?” 

Nadia choked on a mouthful of tea. 

“Sturmhond? Saints, no! Tamar!”

“Oh,” Nina said, feeling her face on fire. “I guess her warning up on the deck makes more sense now.” Nadia nodded.

“She gets a bit possessive when there are other pretty women around.” It took Nina a moment to realize Nadia was talking about her. “I’d best run up to the deck again and get into position for our move out of the harbor. Make sure to come watch as we set sail. Seeing the shore disappear as we take to open seas is my favorite part.” 

Nina promised that she'd be up as soon as she'd drunk her fill of tea, as long as she could find the deck again. 

Nadia laughed again. 

“Just follow the scent of salty sea air until you make it to the top. Easy!” She chirped,and then she was scampering out of the kitchen. 

\----

Nikolai busied himself with the final preparations before they took off. This was one of his favorite parts of being a privateer. Reading the winds, adjusting the sails, watching each member of his crew work at his or her own tasks like cogs in a giant piece of well-oiled machinery. 

“Captain,” Nadia nodded to him as she took up her spot beside the main mast. The Squaller was a staple aboard any ship he sailed these days. She was as natural a sailor as he was himself. Of course having only one Squaller aboard on the trip was risky, but Nikolai planned to conserve her energy for any spots of trouble or bad weather that might pop up. Other than helping them get out of the harbor, she'd be free to run around getting into trouble with Tamar for the rest of the journey, as long as things went to plan. 

Tamar paused in her work checking the safety boats and ammunition supplies on one side of the deck, to look up at Nadia with a wide smile.

Genya’s words from that morning echoed around Nikolai’s head. 

“Not a cruise on the love boat? Genya’s certainly underestimating my sailors, then.” He muttered to himself.

“I dropped your girl in the kitchens, Sir. She was guzzling tea when I left her,” Nadia told Nikolai as she stretched and flexed her shoulders and fingers.

“Thank you, Nadia.”

“Isn't this the part where you tell me she's not your girl?”

“Did Zoya and Genya put you up to this?” Nadia laughed, catching Tamar’s attention below again. 

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Nadia insisted.

Nikolai shook his head and stomped away, leaving the post to his first mate. He was starting to regret surrounding himself with so many female advisors. They were all starting to gang up on him. 

He leaned forward over the deck, gloved hands gripping the metal rail tightly. 

“It looks like a nice day to sail.” He hadn't even heard Nina come up behind him. He scooted over a bit in the international signal for “here come stand by me,” and she joined him at the rail.

“It's damn near perfect.”

“An auspicious start to the journey, then, although you don't strike me as a man who believes in luck.” 

“I believe in maps and sextants and fine brandy and crew members that do their jobs very very well.” 

“And that's what makes you the best pirate in the world?” 

“It's privat -- you're doing that on purpose, aren't you?” Nina’s only answer was the sound of her laugh uncurling over the sound of the breeze and the waves lapping at the ship. He shook his head. These damned women. 

He turned around and signaled to the men and women in his crew, then watched Nadia lift her arms. 

“Hold on tight,” he warned Nina.

And then they began to move.

\----

As she did on the sail from Ketterdam to Ravka weeks before, Nina fell easily into the routine of life on the ship. She spent many days practicing blade work with Tamar, or gossiping with Nadia about the the Grisha they both knew back at the Little Palace. She often missed Inej when she was with Tamar and Nadia, and wrote countless letters that she would probably never get the chance to mail. When the days grew long and Nina was bored, she'd climb into the crow’s nest to listen to Tolya’s stories. Inevitably she would grow bored of that, too, and then she'd work on convincing him to teach her the bawdiest drinking songs in his native language. His voice was slow and deep, which made everything, even the most inappropriate lyrics sound like a religious hymn, and Nina’s was shrill and perpetually out of tune, raining down over the ship with no skill and much enthusiasm. 

Each night they gathered around the table in the kitchen like it was time for a family dinner. Sturmhond had said it would be a skeleton crew, but he didn't skimp when it came to the cook. Night after night the table was piled with savory dishes and sweet confections. And when the platters were picked clean and everyone was swaying from too much brandy and just enough laughter, they would take turns cleaning up and washing dishes. 

Nina soon learned that in exchange for a couple hours chopping carrots or cleaning potatoes in the afternoon, the cook, whose name was Anton, would let her taste test his latest dessert experiments. She could often be found in the kitchen chopping away or nursing a cup of tea by the cookstove while Anton told her stories of his village. 

In the first few days, she saw little of Sturmhond. If she was on the top deck with Nadia and Tamar, she could often look to the center mast and see him there, hands on the ship’s wheel, eyes focused on the sea. But they rarely exchanged words, or even smiles. 

Until one night when dinner ended and she and Tolya started clearing away the dishes for cleanup duty. Sturmhond put his hand on the other man’s broad shoulder. 

“I'll take care of it, Tolya. You go get some rest.” 

Tolya dried his soapy hands on a rag and shrugged. 

“If you insist, boss.” And Sturmhond took up his place beside Nina. They fell into a comfortable rhythm - Sturmhond scrubbing, Nina rinsing and drying. At one point, Nina looked down at Sturmhond’s hands, emerged in the soapy water and could have sworn. But she shook her head. No, surely not.

When the kitchen was back to sparkling clean, Sturmhond surreptitiously slipped his gloves back on and then turned to Nina who was wiping down the counters. 

“Will you have a drink with me?” 

“Sure,” she said, heading toward the table. 

“Actually,” he mumbled, “I keep the good stuff in my own quarters.” Nina raised her eyebrows. 

“You've been holding out on us?” He laughed and she followed him out of the kitchen, heading toward his rooms. 

“There are very few things I'm snobbish about. Liquor just happens to be one of them.” 

“Alright, and what are the others?” 

“Well-made ships, of course. I like my clothes finely-tailored.” Nina let her eyes roam over his back as he led her down a narrow hallway. His shirt fit snugly over his broad shoulders, tapering to his narrow waist and trousers that pulled snug across his ass. 

“I can see that.” He threw a roguish smile over his shoulder. 

“I like nice leather gloves.” Nina sighed. What was up with the men in her life and gloves? She'd have to include this in her next letter to Inej. Of all people, she would understand. “What about you? Any particularly discerning tastes you’d like to disclose?” 

“Chocolate.” The word was more like a breathy moan the way she said it. Sturmhond stopped walking and turned to watch her. “The darker the better. Bitter, almost like coffee. And just plain chocolate. No fruit. No nuts. None of those crunchy wafer bits. Just little squares of chocolate wrapped in gold foil. Small enough that you can put the whole thing on your tongue and just wait, savoring it as it melts and coats your whole mouth in rich, smooth,” her eyes slipped shut, “chocolate.” 

When she opened her eyes again, he had stepped forward and was watching her with such intensity that she stumbled back and into the wall of the hallway. 

“Sorry!”

“No, I'm sorry.”

Sturmhond stepped back awkwardly, looking everywhere but at Nina. 

“We’ve uh, arrived,” he said gesturing at the door just beyond where they stood, then he pushed it open with his gloved hands and stepped back so she could go in first. 

“Saints, Sturmhond. No wonder the rest of us have to sleep in rooms the size of an orange crate. You took all the space for yourself.” 

“The captain’s quarters were this way when I uh, inherited, the ship.” 

“Is inherited special pirate code for stole?” 

“Um, yes, although it's actually -”

“Privateer,” they said in unison, laughing. Whatever awkward tension remained from the hallway melted away. 

Nina walked around Sturmhond’s antechamber running her hand over things while he poured two glasses of brandy. There was a small, private dining table, a giant hulking beast of a desk littered with maps and compasses, a worn leather couch, a porthole that she stood on tiptoes to look out even though it was too dark to see anything. There was a closed wooden door that presumably led to his bedroom, which Nina was pointedly trying not to look at. 

He handed her a glass containing two fingers of a beautiful burnished gold brandy, and settled on the leather couch. She was dressed casually, as she had been since they set sail - an oversized shirt and leggings. As she sat at the other end of the couch, cupping her glass in her hands, she slipped her feet out of her flats and curled her legs up beside her on the couch. 

“I think this is more comfortable than the bed in my room. I might have to start sleeping in here.” She watched Sturmhond’s reaction from beneath hooded lids, watched his gloved hands tense against his glass, the way his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. For whatever reason, she liked playing with the man. Watching the hyper-awareness he had of her, her words, her body. Remembering the way he had seemed so immune to her looks on the trip from Ketterdam to Ravka had her rolling her hips a bit as she settled into the dark worn leather, hefting her breasts a little to see if he'd notice. 

His eyes skittered over her body, down to her toes tucked beside her on the couch, and drew a hand down his face. 

“I could use a favor.”

“Well I owe you one. A few. For all of this.” She gestured at the ship around them. He exhaled loudly.

“When you were in Ketterdam, you worked at The House of the --”

Nina leapt to her feet, nearly splashing brandy down the front of her shirt. 

“If you think for one second --”

“I don't! I don't. Sit and let me explain.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “Please.” 

She crossed her arms and looked away. 

“I am not trying to solicit sex from you Nina. I swear. Saints!” He shook his head. “ When you're ready, perhaps you could sit down and I could explain myself better than the first time I attempted it.” 

Well, that's better, I suppose, Nina thought, and sat down heavily on the couch and took a large gulp of her drink.

“From what I understand, your specialty there was mood lightening? Relieving stress?” 

Nina eyed him wearily. 

“I guess you could say that.” 

“Can you do that for me? Help me like that?” 

“What kind of stress could you possibly have, Sturmhond?” 

“Didn't I tell you to call me Niko?”

“Haven't you figured out that I don't like being told what to do? And besides, last I heard you wanted me to call you ‘scourge of the seas.’” 

“So perhaps Niko could be a nice middle ground.” 

“Alright, alright Niko, I can see now that you're under a lot of stress over this identity crisis. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can help you anymore.”

“How come?” He was eyeing her suspiciously. She took another sip of brandy, relishing the slow burn down her throat, and chewed on her thumbnail. She liked Sturmhond - Niko, whatever. She was starting to view him as a friend. But she wasn't sure how much she should divulge.

“Have you ever known a Grisha to lose his or her powers?” Niko hesitated.

“Yes.” That wasn't the answer she was expecting.

“Really, who?”

“That's...classified.” Nina rolled her eyes.

“Anyway, a few months ago in Ketterdam, I went through an...ordeal. And after that the abilities that I was used to, that I had studied and honed at the Little Palace and used as a Heartrender in the Second Army, were...changed.” _Gone,_ Nina sighed. “I still have Grisha abilities, but they're different than they used to be, and I'm not even sure if I could do anything for you.” 

“I see,” he looked down into his half-drank glass of brandy. “Could you try?” 

“Yes, I can try.” She shifted closer to him on the couch. “Is it ok if I touch you?” 

Niko gave a wide smile. 

“I usually prefer that a lady buy me dinner first, maybe bring me flowers…” 

“I need to concentrate. Don't make me laugh, Niko.” She was so close to him now. Close enough to smell the spearmint scent of his soap, the tang of alcohol on his breath as he exhaled slowly, almost painfully.

“I like it when you laugh,” he whispered. She pulled back enough to run her eyes over his face, studying the freckles, the scars, the dimple on one side of his mouth. 

“I like when you make me laugh.” She felt his attention turn to her mouth, her full dark lips, and before he could cross that whisper of space between them, she placed her palm against his forehead.

A jolt shook her as her hand met his flesh and she jumped away. He had felt it too, drawing back against the couch with eyes wide.

“What was that?” She gasped, but already she was reaching to touch him again. She ran one finger down the side of his cheek, over the ridge of his jaw. It still made her shiver, but she was prepared this time. She felt his body react to her. Something dark and familiar ran under his skin, reaching out to her hungrily as she touched his skin, like drawing a magnet through a pile of metal shavings. 

She looked Niko in the eyes and found the bright green clouded with shadow and shame and hunger and lust and exhaustion. 

“What are you?” And under her hand, Niko shuddered.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nina finds out more about the secret Sturmhond is keeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you'd like to follow along on Tumblr, feel free to follow me over there! @ablackbirdsinging

She looked Niko in the eyes and found the bright green clouded with shadow and shame and hunger and lust and exhaustion. 

“What are you?” And under her hand, Niko shuddered

\---- 

“I was attacked by the Darkling near the end of the war.” Nina removed the finger that was tracing his jaw, driving him crazy.

“And you lived?” 

“Apparently,” Nikolai said with a dark laugh. “It seems that he left something behind, though.”

Realization crossed Nina’s features. 

“His shadows?” 

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he shrugged. 

“Can I - can I look?” Her eyes darted to his chest. It seemed that she could sense that the darkness concentrated in his shoulders, his chest, his abdomen, down his thighs. His face and neck were clear, although he could sometimes feel the dark shadows like a wiggling worm under his hair or behind an ear.

He nodded his consent and lifted his still-gloved hands to his shirt buttons, but Nina brushed them to the side. 

“I want to do it.” With trembling hands, she began to unbutton his shirt. One by one she went lower and lower until she had to pull his shirt out of his trousers to do the last three buttons. Her eyes went lower and lower as arousal curled in Nikolai’s belly.

“Eyes up here, Zenik.” A blush stained her cheeks.

“Sorry. Can I touch you again?” Nikolai knew somewhere in the less-lust-addled sections of his brain that she was looking at him as a science experiment, not someone she wanted to touch intimately, but still, her low, breathy voice had his cock twitching helplessly against his trousers.

She ran a finger down his chest, tracing a thick streak of the shadow writhing under his skin, and furrowed her brow, thinking. Every second of her touch was like fireworks going off in his body. 

“Well, Captain Niko Sturmhond Pirate Boy Scourge of the Seas. Today is your lucky day.” He cocked his head, feeling confused. “These strands are death.” He recoiled.

“That doesn't sound very lucky.”

“Well, they aren't going to kill you. Probably. What's lucky for you, though, is that my powers no longer react strongly to living flesh. I can't manipulate the body the way I once could. But the dead,” She looked down and scratched a spot above her nose. “My powers still work for the dead. I think these strands of death under your skin will allow me to clear your mind a little, lower your blood pressure some. I don't know how long the effects will last, but hopefully you'll get enough relief for a couple nights of decent sleep.”

Nikolai loosed a deep breath. Could she tell just by looking at him that he could barely sleep? That when he did drift off he was plagued by nightmares? 

“That would,” his voice was thick, “that would be enough.” She nodded.

“Let’s get to work, then.” Nikolai tried to sit as still as possible, but Nina’s hands working on his body tickled at best and felt like some sort of advanced torture device at worst. It didn't hurt, but it did take every ounce of his considerable willpower not to capture her face in his hands and kiss her breathless. 

Her hands on either side of his face swept the cobwebs out of his mind. She pulled one flap of his unbuttoned shirt aside to slip a hand over his heart to relieve the tension in his chest and lungs. And then she helped him stretch out on his stomach on the leather couch, so she could rub her hands over his shoulders and work out the knots of shadowy stress there. As she worked, she spoke to him about what she was doing and things she had learned in her studies at the Little Palace. When her hands finally stilled, Nikolai was nearly asleep. His body hadn't felt this light in years.

“Do you need help getting to bed?” In some murky depths of his now-relaxed mind, Nikolai wondered if she was propositioning him, but she was still using her professional Heartrender voice. Whatever bit of flirtation they'd shown toward each other earlier in the night had slipped away. He shook his head groggily and staggered off toward his sleeping quarters.

\----

Nina wondered if she should follow to make sure Niko would be ok, but she was just so damn tired from expending so much of her power. She had gone so long without using it at all, that she felt completely worn out. Rather than finding her way back to her room, Nina grabbed one of Niko’s cloaks hung over the desk chair to cover herself and promptly fell asleep on the couch.

\----

Light starting filling the room entirely too early through the porthole somewhere beyond the couch where Nina slept. It took her a second to remember where she was and what she had learned about Niko the night before.

A man with death running through his veins. Nina’s whole body shuddered at the thought. 

She pushed off the cloak that smelled of Niko and slipped her toes back into her flat leather shoes. She needed copious amounts of tea as quickly as it could be found. 

When she threw open the door, though, she came face to face with Tolya standing like a soldier outside Niko’s room. 

“Tolya, hi.” He didn't seem surprised to see her. 

“Good morning, Nina.” 

“Were you...standing here all night?” Tolya nodded.

“It was my turn on watch.” 

“Sturmhond is that paranoid about his safety aboard his own ship?” 

“Not really his call, from what I understand.” Nina didn't have any idea what Tolya was talking about. He was always so damn cryptic and it was still too early to puzzle out his meaning.

“He seems like a man who could handle his own sword, if it came to it.” Tolya quirked one eyebrow in a comical fashion. 

“I think you'd know better than me, miss.” A hot blush lit up Nina’s face.

“Tolya are you making an inappropriate joke?” She exclaimed, looking scandalized. The big man laughed a silent laugh that shook his shoulders.

“You're lucky you caught this one. Tolya only makes an inappropriate joke about once a year,” Niko said dryly as he came into the antechamber. He was in the same unbuttoned shirt from last night, linen sleep pants, and his gloves. His hair was ruffled, his cheeks red, and for the first time since she met him, he looked well rested. And, he was barefoot. The sight of his toes peeking out from under his pajama pants had Nina swallowing hard and she could not stop watching him walk across the room. Her fingers twitched at her side and her blood hummed. Oh, how she wanted to touch him again.

Tolya, who could probably feel the racing cadence of Nina’s heart, looked between the two, muttered something about tea and lumbered off to fetch some. 

Nina looked awkwardly around the room.

“Did you sleep well?” 

“I can't remember the last time I slept like that.” He rolled his shoulders. “Everything feels lighter. Thank you, Nina. I can't tell you how much I appreciate what you did.” 

“I'm really glad I could help. I've been feeling kind of useless with these changed powers and not really being able to pull my weight aboard the ship.” Niko sat at the small table in the corner of the room and gestured for Nina to join him. 

“What are you talking about? Your lovely singing from the Crow’s Nest really motivates everyone. I've never seen my sailors scrub down the decks so quickly to hurry back to their chambers. It's a pity about all the blood leaking from their ears, though.” Nina laughed long and loud at that. She was well aware that singing was not her best attribute. 

Tolya gave a tentative knock at the door before pushing it open, hands full of a tray of tea and mugs and some kind of pastry. 

“Please tell me Anton made scones?” Tolya nodded and set the tray down on the small table between Nina and Sturmhond, then hesitated. Nina smiled up at him. “You'd better sit down and grab a few before I eat the rest of this tray.” 

A moment later, Tamar poked her head into the room. 

“Nadia! They're having a party and didn't invite us!” And then Tamar was crossing the room, dragging her girlfriend by the hand. Tamar perched on a trunk beside the table and Nadia perched on Tamar’s knee, nibbling at a scone and looking back and forth between Nina and Sturmhond with an excited expression.

“You two have a nice night together?” Nina and Niko both choked on their tea.

“It wasn't - we weren't together - not like -,” Nina stammered. 

“Nina slept on the couch,” Niko said, clarifying. 

“Oh, very romantic, Captain. You couldn't even share your giant comfortable bed after?” 

Everyone started chattering nervously at once. 

“Nadia, you minx!”

“It wasn't like that!”

“Did Zoya and Genya give you lessons in gossiping like this?”

Nadia only laughed. 

“If nothing happened, why are you staring at her with that loopy grin?” 

Nina raised her eyebrows and shifted her foot under the table ever so slightly.

“Yes, Captain, why are you smiling like that?” She batted her eyelashes at him, baiting him. Niko winked at her one time as if to say he wouldn't back down, and her insides went molten.

“Well, if you must know, Nadia, I'm smiling like this because Zenik’s been rubbing her toes against my ankle for the last five minutes.”

She stomped hard on his toes. 

“Is there no such thing as a secret on this damned ship?” She cried and the rest of the table answered with a resounding “no!”

The rest of breakfast was a flurry of innuendo and elbows around the too small table and the scent of tea and the clink of spoons on the side of mugs and the slide of butter over still warm scones and not at all secret loopy grins over everything and laughing. So much laughing. Nina’s heart gave a lurch. It wasn't Inej and Jesper and the Dregs, but it would do. Yes, it would certainly do.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flirting and whales and hand jobs, oh my! (In other words, this chapter is NSFW. Finally!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to follow along on my Tumblr! @ablackbirdsinging

In the days that followed, there was a marked difference in Sturmhond’s demeanor. His step was lighter, and the dark circles beneath his eyes were too. Nina’s ministrations had worked wonders and the members of his crew who had known him before the Darkling’s attack saw their old friend and Captain once again. When she saw him, she remembered that he was just a young man, only a handful of years older than Nina herself.

Sturmhond often sought Nina out in those days, standing with her at the deck to point out birds, hooking one of her elbows and dragging her to his map room to show her where they were on their journey to Fjerda, attempting to teach her to whistle so she could stop torturing everyone on board with her singing voice. He often claimed the spot next to her on the crowded bench where the group ate their supper, even when Nadia was already there chattering away to Nina.

“Budge over,” he said, shouldering between the two women.

“We’re in the middle of a conversation here,” Nadia complained as she scooted down the bench. 

“Oh yeah? About anything good?” Sturmhond asked as he filled his plate from the platters on the table.

“About hair conditioners. Is that of much interest to you?” Nina asked.

“Oh yes, absolutely. I've always wondered how you get your hair so shiny,” and he listened attentively as Nina, Nadia, and Tamar talked all through dinner about hair products, knee pressed against Nina’s under the table the whole time. 

When the crew began to disperse, Sturmhond got up without another word to Nina and took up his turn at plate-scraping duty at the refuse bin at the end of the kitchen, leaving her confused and missing the warmth of his touch.

\----

Afterward, Nina paced around her room, which really was the size of an orange crate, trying not to cry. 

The first man she had ever really loved, and the first man who ever loved her back, was lying dead in the hold of this ship while she made new friends and flirted with a man she barely knew and hoped that any second he would knock on her door and take her in his arms and kiss her and kiss her and kiss her and never stop. 

She felt like every beat of her heart and every shuddered breath was a betrayal of Matthias, who had been such a good man, but wanted to be better, for her. She tried to write a letter to Inej. To tell her all of this, but so many tears fell on the paper that the ink ran in messy streaks and she had to tear it up and throw it away.

She missed him. She missed Inej. She missed her old life which was never the life she wanted, but it was still a place that she fit. She didn't know how she fit into this ship or into Niko’s life, and how all that would change once they returned to Ravka again. It was all too much.

She wanted to get out of her stifling room, but she knew that she might run into Niko and she didn't trust what her body might do when she saw him again. So instead she stripped out of her clothes, laid down on her bed and went to sleep.

\----

Nikolai walked as quickly and quietly as he could through the narrow halls of the ship. He knew Tamar, on duty, was trailing him, keeping a respectful distance. He let her catch up to him. 

“What's up boss?” Tamar asked as she approached. 

“There's something I need to show Zenik. Any chance you can give us some space?” Tamar thumbed an axe holstered at her side. 

“Space? Sure. But I'm not going to go climb into bed and leave you alone for the night. My brother would throw me overboard if something happened to you. And then once I swam all the way back to Ravka, the Triumvirate would chop me up and feed me to the birds. And then you would have to answer to Nadia, who’s grown so attached to me lately. So in short, no.” Nikolai sighed heavily. He expected as much. There was a reason the twins were his personal bodyguards. They were the most hard-headed people he knew. 

“Listen, I just need to get Nina and bring her up to the top deck. Can you meet us there? Off the port side. I just need to show her something.”

“What is it?”

“It's a surprise.” Tamar eyed him warily.

“It's not your penis, is it?” 

“No! It's not my - it's not any body part at all. Saints, Tamar.”

“Well, I just needed to check. Alright. I'll meet you on the deck.”

As she started to walk away, Nikolai stopped her again. 

“Wait, Tamar. Go get your girl and bring her too.” Nikolai smiled at the spring in his bodyguard’s step as  
she hurried away to wake up Nadia.

He knocked quietly at Nina’s door and when there wasn't a response, he pushed it open tentatively. She hadn't been exaggerating the other day. It really was the size of an orange crate. There was barely enough room for Nina’s trunk and the bed. 

The room was so dark that he could barely make out her sleeping form, the spill of dark hair across her sheets. 

“Nina,” he whispered. “Nina!” A little louder, and he reached to touch her shoulder. She jerked away, looking startled. “Sorry, it's just me.” 

“What are you doing here?” She sat up, touching her hair self-consciously, and her sheets pooled around her waist. In the dim light from the hall lanterns filtering into her room, Nikolai tried and mostly failed not to look at the silhouette of her full breasts through the light shift she wore. 

“There's something I need to show you. Up top on the deck. Can you get dressed quickly and meet me in the hall?” Nina rubbed her face groggily.

“What time is it?”

“I'm not sure exactly. Two bells maybe? But it can't wait till morning. Wear something warm, it's cold this far north.” And then he disappeared out the door so she could change. 

A couple minutes later, Nina reopened her door and stepped out. She was dressed in trousers and a worn brown sweater, with a fur lined cloak slung over one arm and a furry cap clutched in her hands. She’d twisted her hair into a messy chignon, but there were already pieces starting to escape and curl around her face. She looked decidedly more awake and devastatingly beautiful.

“This better be good,” she muttered as he led her topside. She swung the cape over her shoulders and donned the hat, and Nikolai pulled his own fur lined trapper hat low over his ears, as they picked their way across the deck, every exhale visible in the cold air.

“It's worth it, I promise,” he said as he reached for her hand. They had never done this before, held hands, but it felt natural to pull her along this way, squeezing her gently out of excitement, as they headed for the deck railing. When they were steps from the rail, a crash resounded from out at sea, water frothing up and nearly misting them where they stood.

Nina froze in place and he came up close behind her to peer over her shoulder.

“Niko, is that?” And then they watched as a large white body lifted out of the water and crashed back down again, sending another great spray in all directions. In the water, barely visible by the moonlight, other bulbous white heads bobbed up and down. 

“Whales,” Niko breathed into her ear. “Belugas. I've never seen one, but I've read about them. I was walking the deck when I heard their song.”

“They sing?”

“About as well as you,” Niko shrugged. “They make distinctive noises - whistles, clicks, a sort of keening sound that's not so different from your song voice actually.” 

She half turned in indignation to shove his shoulder with her own, but he caught her and walked her the rest of the way up to the railing so they could watch the whale pod better. Even in her cloak and hat, she was shivering from the cold, so he opened his coat and stepped behind her, tucking her against him, arms around her stomach, chin on her shoulder. She breathed deeply and relaxed against his chest. 

“I'm sorry it's so cold,” he murmured against her neck. The proximity of his mouth to her skin made them both shiver. 

“Don't be sorry. This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, Niko.” Below them, the whales swam and played in the moonlight like large white ghosts gliding through the waves, one occasionally breaching the water with an exhale of air, then melting back down, paying no attention to the ship. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Niko saw Tamar and Nadia come up on deck too, wrapped up in a blanket. They excitedly peered into the water at the whales, and settled against the railing with their arms around each other, far enough from Niko and Nina to give them some privacy.

\----

Nina stomped her feet a bit, trying to get the feeling to come back to her toes. Niko’s arms wrapped tighter around her body. She couldn't decide what was better - watching the whales in the water, or standing on deck in Niko’s arms.

“Have you seen a lot of interesting animals on your journeys?” She asked, breaking the silence.

“A few. For the most part we’re not out sight-seeing, but there have definitely been a few places where the whole crew just has to stop and take it in. In the south we've actually had dolphin pods follow us for kilometers, just swimming and chattering and playing beside the ship. If you go really far north to the hard ice, you might see polar bears or leopard seals on land as we sail past. We once tracked a sea dragon, did I ever tell you that?”

“A sea dragon? Are those even real?”

“Well, one is. Was.”

She turned to look at him, sadly. 

“Was?”

“It's a long story,” he shrugged. 

“I’d like to hear it someday.” Now facing him, she stepped even closer and wrapped her arms around him inside his coat. 

“You're freezing, Nina. Do you want to go inside?” 

“No, not at all. I want to keep watching them, I just need to warm up a bit.” She pressed her face into his chest which rose and fell steadily. It reminded her of another time with another man who promised to keep her warm, despite himself. She closed her eyes for a second and willed herself back to the present, where she was with Niko and Matthias was dead. 

“Are you ok?” He asked her softly. She knew there were tears shining in her eyes. 

“Yes,” she whispered. “I'm better than ok, really. I'm just overwhelmed.” 

“Alright. Tell me if you need to go inside.” He rubbed her back briskly, trying to warm her up. Then he began peeling off his gloves. 

“What are you doing?” 

“You need these more than I do,” he said huskily.

“But you never take your gloves off.” 

“Well, I do, actually. Just not with, with other people.” He swallowed thickly. He trusted her, Nina realized. This man who didn't trust anyone. Who kept a bodyguard outside his room all night on his own ship, trusted her. 

Before he could hide his hands in his pockets or behind his back, Nina caught one of his bare hands in hers. She ran her nearly numb thumb over the scars, the thick and twisted fingernails, keeping her eyes locked on Niko’s.

“You don't have to hide any part of yourself from me, Niko.” He slid his bare hand up to cup her cheek, and Nina felt the jump of her blood under his hand. She knew he felt it too.

“I feel like a monster sometimes.”

“Thank the Saints that we are more than the sum of our scars, Niko. That you are more than the shadows under your skin or the crooked nose and lopsided grin on your face.” She slid her hand across his shirt to rest above his heart just like she'd done a few nights earlier when she'd cleared the shadows from his chest. “What I like about you is in here, Niko.”

He looked at her with such earnestness in his eyes, that Nina’s heart jumped into her throat.

“Nina, there's something I need to tell -” but he was interrupted by a loud splash and a frustrated clacking noise from the water. Peering over the rail, they saw a large beluga bobbing in the water, chattering away at them. 

“Maybe we should move away from the edge,” Niko said, pulling Nina away. 

“Are they dangerous?” 

“I don't think they'd attack the boat, but I'm not sure.”

They resettled away from the railing, seated on the deck floor. Niko’s back rested against a stack of shipping crates, Nina nestled against his chest. He handed her his gloves and she slipped them onto her own hands. They were still warm from his body heat and wearing them felt so much more intimate than anything they had said or done yet. 

The whales continued their songs, swimming alongside the ship as it slowly cut through the frigid waters. Somewhere further down the deck, Nadia had pushed Tamar’s back up against the ladder to the next level, and was kissing her fervently.

Nina let her eyes fall shut, feeling comfortable and cradled in Niko’s arms on the rocking ship.

\---- 

They stayed like that for a long while, as the songs of the whales grew more distant and the sky began to lighten. Nina’s eyes were shut but he didn't think she was sleeping. His bare hand rubbed circles against her back. He had almost told her who he really was. Niko knew he needed to have that conversation with her, preferably before things became more serious. But he couldn't help but feel grateful for this time when they could get to know each other as Nina and Niko, not the King and one of his subjects. But he needed to tell her. Soon. 

Tamar and Nadia left their spot on the deck and came closer to the place Nikolai and Nina were sprawled. 

“It's too cold out here. You two should get to bed,” Tamar said. The implication was clear. He looked down at his chest where Nina’s head rested, eyes fluttering open.

“Not yet. I can still hear them and I'm not ready to say goodbye.” Nikolai looked at Tamar and shrugged. 

“You heard the lady.” His bodyguard looked back at Nadia who was wrapped in the blanket from their room a few paces away.

“You get one night. Go straight back to your room from here and don't go anywhere in the morning until I'm back at my post.” 

Nikolai knew she was giving him a gift, but he supposed he had given her one first. He nodded his agreement. 

“Bossy, isn't she?” Nina muttered as Tamar and Nadia walked back to their room. 

“Oh you have no idea.”

“I like her. I like all of them. They remind me of my friends back -” Niko thought she was about to say “home” but stopped herself. After spending so much time away from Ravka, perhaps Nina didn't know where to call home anymore. Nikolai could understand that. 

\----

Nina’s eyes fluttered shut again. She had almost called Ketterdam home. It wasn't, of course, but in a very real way, Inej, Kaz, Jesper, and the others had become her home. The feeling of missing them was a tangible ache in her chest. 

Niko’s bare hand had moved up to trace the lines of her face. 

“Is this what it felt like, touching me the other night?” Nina laughed.

“Yes.” She knew what he meant - the way her blood sang for him as he traced one shadow-carved finger over her skin.

“How did you stand it?” 

“I barely did. As soon as you stumbled into your room I passed out. Exhausted from using my power, but also from holding back.” His lips brushed against her temple in the barest hint of a kiss. 

“I wish you hadn't held back.” She pulled back to look at him better, to run her gloved hand across his stubbled jaw. “What is this?”

“The Grisha principle, like calls to like. You've heard of it?” He nodded. “The death in you. The death in me. It calls to itself across our bodies. It yearns for you.” She felt self-conscious saying it but he nodded and she knew that he had felt it too.

“What do you think it wants?” 

Nina shrugged.

“How could we possibly tell? Maybe it just wants to reach out to something similar. To know it's not alone.” She licked her lips, chapped from the cold and the bite of the wind. The movement caught Niko’s attention and his green eyes lowered to her mouth. 

“Maybe that's all that any of us want,” he murmured and then he was leaning into her, kissing her so tenderly that Nina nearly felt the broken pieces of her heart knit themselves back together again in her chest.

\----

When the feel of Niko’s hands on her face and lips on her mouth could no longer stave off her shivering, he finally dragged her away from the top deck and through the halls. 

“Is this ok?” He asked as they neared his rooms. Nina's mouth was too dry to form coherent words, so she just nodded.

His bedchamber was smaller than his antechamber, but not by much. It was filled with a large bed, draped with red bedding and framed by two dark wood nightstands. An armoire was pushed against one wall and across from it was another door. 

“What does that lead to?” Niko’s smile lit up the room. 

“My bathing room.”

“You have your own bathing room?” She asked, astounded. The rest of the crew took care of their business in a tiny water closet, washing up with buckets of sea water. It was a far cry from life at the Little Palace or The House of the White Rose.

“David and I experimented with some modifications in there to get running water piped through. We’re hoping to roll it out through the fleet soon.” Nina moaned.

“Running water? You know this means I'm never leaving this room, right?” Niko just laughed. He left her to the bathing room to do her business and wash her hands and face, and when she returned to the room Niko was already in bed, lamp turned low on his bedside table. 

She had already taken off her sweater and was only wearing a lace-trimmed camisole underneath. She slid her trousers off and let them land in a pile on the floor, then jumped into his bed and burrowed under the covers.

“Hi,” she said, smiling at him sweetly.

“Hi,” he responded, relaxing a bit at how comfortable she seemed. “Aren't you going to be cold in just that?” 

“You're a gentleman, Captain. Surely you wouldn't let a woman freeze to death in your bed, would you?” 

“You're too much, Zenik,” he laughed, and then he reached for her. 

\----

There was a time, before, when Nikolai had been no stranger to the body of women. But he had not let anyone see him, touch him, in over two years. He knew, with a tendril of embarrassment, that he would not last long with Nina in his bed looking like sex incarnate. 

They lay face to face, hips to hips. Her curls were loose and wild around her shoulders and the pillows. Her eyes were dark and her lips kiss-bitten. One strap of her camisole was already slipping down a freckled shoulder. Saints, he wanted to touch every part of her.

He took his time kissing her, memorizing the feel of her mouth and tongue against his own, the small needy noises she made under her breath. He remembered Genya’s words about Nina not being ready to give him what he wanted and he knew he should go slow with her. But every second that passed with her skin under his mangled hands, he felt his control slipping. 

Where Nikolai’s body was hard and sharp and carved deep with rivulets of shadowy death, Nina’s was soft and curving and voluptuous. Her cleavage spilled over the top of her camisole, drawing his eyes and then his fingertips to trace the curve and dip of her flesh, while she laughed. She was ticklish everywhere, dissolving into giggles as he ran his hands over her shoulder blades and traced the line of her panties as they cut across her upper thigh. He cupped one of the cheeks of her ass, running his thumb over her sensitive lower back and dipping lower. He pulled back in hesitation as she writhed under his hand, but she pulled his mouth down to hers and breathed “don't you dare stop,” across his lips.

He was happy to let her take control then, let her set the pace as her hips rocked into his, as she grabbed one of his hands and used it to cup her own breast. He thumbed her nipple until it was hard and peaked, then pushed the lace of her camisole down so he could take her into his mouth, her back arching up, moans spilling from her lips. 

Her hand grabbed one of his again, pushing it down to swirl around her belly button, then lower to the elastic of her panties. 

“Please,” she begged. “Please touch me.” He ran his fingers down the outside of the wet satin while she trembled, rubbing her gently through her underwear. He knew this was not what she wanted. Not all she wanted. But he hesitated.

His hands were no longer the gentle hands of a prince. His fingernails were thick and twisted. His hands sometimes twitched with phantom pain, curling in on themselves like claws. He wasn't sure if he could trust himself to give her what she wanted. 

“I don't want to hurt you.” Her eyes flashed and she ground her hips against his erection until he was seeing stars. 

“I won't let you hurt me, Niko,” and then she was pulling aside her own underwear so he could touch her. Nikolai could feel his resolve splintering and slipped a finger inside her, thumb circling her clit. 

“Have you ever?” 

“Yes,” Nina spoke around a low moan. “But not for a long time.” It was enough to know that she wasn't a virgin. That he didn't have to be that gentle, at least. 

\---- 

It had been a long time. She and Matthias’ hadn't had enough time together to do much more than grope each other blindly in the hotel suite where Jesper’s father had been staying. But the Grisha were progressive about sex, and she'd done her fair share of experimenting when she was studying at the Little Palace, and even after in the Second Army. 

Despite his initial hesitation, Niko worked his hand in and out of her quickly, confidently, while she writhed around his fingers. It was only as she moaned again and he bucked his hips into his own hand working inside her panties that Nina realized she'd been ignoring him a bit. 

She gripped his forearm to still him for a moment, flipping over so he was spooning her, rubbing her ass against his cock, straining against the tight cotton of his underwear. She reached behind her to push his underwear down, getting them far enough down so that he could kick them out of the way himself, then took his cock in her hand. 

His hand, which was working in and out of her again, lost its rhythm at her touch, but she set a furious new pace that he picked up in an instant. Her head fell back to rest on the spot his shoulder met his neck, the sound of his frenzied breaths filling up her entire world.

“Saints, that feels good, Nina,” Niko muttered as her hand kept up a brutal pace, twisting and pulling his dick. The feel of his fingers inside her, heel of his hand grinding against her clit, while his cock rutted against her backside, suddenly became too much. With a string of filthy curses and then his name over and over again, Nina came hard around his beautiful shadowed hand. It only took another twist of Nina’s hand and the sight of her arching back and ample ass tensing inside her underwear, for Niko to bite her shoulder and come across her lower back. 

They lay together, panting and damp with sweat and cum, for a few minutes. Gentle strokes and quiet breaths in the aftermath of their orgasms. 

“I'm sorry, I've made a mess,” Niko said self-consciously as Nina looked over her shoulder to the damp spot between their bodies.

She laughed. 

“I'm a Heartrender. Bodily fluids don't bother me much. And besides,” she kissed him sweetly. “What good is running water if you're not going to get messy now and then?” 

He laughed with her. 

“You're amazing. You know that?” 

“Of course I know that,” then she climbed out of bed and headed to clean up. Before she disappeared into the bathing room she turned and threw him a smile over her shoulder. “You're pretty amazing yourself, Captain.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After sleeping together, Nina and Niko figure out how to proceed with their relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to follow along at my Tumblr: @ablackbirdsinging

Nina woke the next morning to the feeling of Niko pressing light kisses to the back of her shoulder. They slept wrapped up in each other, naked and under a pile of blankets.

“Good morning,” Nina said, stretching her arms over her head and arching her back like a cat. Niko ran his hands over her stomach and groaned. 

“I want to stay here all day with you, but there are probably some things I need to check on.” Nina nodded. 

“I understand. The ship can't go on without its pirate captain.”

“Privateer,” he growled against her mouth as he kissed her. “Tamar brought tea.”

She pulled back abruptly. 

“Well, why didn't you say so?” They both rolled out of bed and reluctantly pulled on clothes. Nina’s undergarments were still damp from last night, so she threw one of Niko’s long, button-up shirts on and sauntered to the door. He caught her around the waist and kissed her again, moving his gloved hands up under the shirt to grip two handfuls of her ass. 

“No pants?” 

“I thought this was a pants-optional boat?” Nina said with a grin. Niko laughed. 

“Tamar’s eyes are going to fall right out of her head when you walk in there like that.” 

“Good,” Nina said with a devilish smile, and threw open the door to the antechamber. 

\---- 

It turned out Tamar had other things on her mind. Namely, Nadia, who was seated nearly in her lap on the big leather couch, kissing her thoroughly. 

The two split apart guiltily as the door to Nikolai’s room flung open and Nina sauntered through. 

“Morning ladies!” Nina chirped, as she settled at the table and went to work on a cup of tea, “Have a good night?” 

“Probably as good as yours, judging by the very satisfied look on the Captain’s face,” Nadia laughed. Nikolai felt a hot blush spread across his face as the women turned their attention to him. Damn ginger complexion, he thought. 

Nadia and Nina started chatting about something, probably someone they both knew at the Little Palace, and Tamar studied him carefully. She was probably looking him over to make sure he hadn't sustained any sex injuries while she was off duty. He shook his head and then tapped his neck below his ear. Tamar’s face flamed bright red and she clapped a hand over the spot on her own neck where a mouth-shaped bruise had been sucked into her skin. He laughed internally and settled into a chair, pulled close enough that his knee could brush Nina’s bare one under the table. 

She passed him a cup of tea made to his liking and he thanked her with a smile. How long had she been paying attention that she knew just how he took his tea? Guilt twisted like a knife in his back. She thought she knew him. Of course, she did. She knew him in a way so very few people had ever known him, but it was still a lie. She did not know his real name, his real face.

He had intended to tell her early on in their journey, never intending to have Tolya keep up his tailoring every couple days for the whole trip. But he had enjoyed his time with her as Sturmhond. She looked at him as an equal, not the way people looked at him when he was wearing his true face on the throne. So he'd decided to just let it go. Now that they'd taken their relationship to a new level, he feared what she would say if he sprang it on her. 

Nina squeezed his knee under the table and he jumped guiltily. 

“Are you ok?” She asked, frowning.

“Yes, of course. I'm, uh, going to visit the loo.” She nodded and he could feel her eyes on his back as he went back to his room. 

When he was finished, he found Nina propped up against the headboard of his unmade bed, biting her fingernails. The sight of her long bare legs against his red sheets took his breath away. 

“Niko, is something wrong?” She looked young then, nervous. “You're not having...buyers remorse, are you?” 

He crossed the room to the bed in a heartbeat, sitting beside her where she sprawled. 

“I do not regret for a second what we did last night,” he said, running his gloved hand over his red hair. “Do you?” 

“Of course not,” Nina said, rubbing her ankles together and watching him from below darkly lidded eyes. “In fact, I'd like to do it again, as soon as possible.” 

He ran his hands up her legs, swallowing thickly. 

“I do too, Nina. But I also want to do this right. You deserve to be treated well.” 

“So what, you want to court me? Ask for my father’s permission? I hate to break it to you but I haven't seen him since I was a little girl and I'm pretty sure he's not on this ship, so I don't see that working out well for us.” Niko laughed. His gloved hands worked further up her thighs, skirting the edge of her shirt - his shirt - that she wore with nothing underneath. 

“Have dinner with me tonight.” 

“We have dinner together every night.” 

“Alone, in the formal dining room.”

“There's a formal dining room?” Niko laughed.

“Yes, and it's very impressive. Candles in gold candelabra. A harp, not that anyone knows what to do with it.”

“Ok, and after this impressive and romantic dinner with gold candelabras and silent harps, you'll fuck me?” Niko’s hands stilled in their journey under her shirt. 

“Saints, you’re shattering my resolve here, Nina.” 

“Good,” she said with a devilish smile, and drew him down to her mouth for a kiss. 

\----

Nina tried to go about her usual routine and regain a sense of normalcy for the rest of the day, but her mind kept drifting to the feeling of Niko’s kisses, the way his fingers felt inside her, the heft of his cock against her palm. And inevitably, after thinking of Niko, her mind drifted lower to the place in the hold that Matthias’ dead body rested. She spent the day oscillating between euphoria and despair. 

She laid out every article of clothing she had packed, trying to decide on something to wear. She drank tea. A lot of tea. She snuck into Niko’s room to wash her hair under his running water and spent too long breathing in the soap smell that reminded her of him. She caught sight of him on the deck and watched him for half an hour, standing tall at the ship’s wheel, coiling lengths of rope with two other sailors, then climbing into the Crow’s Nest to talk to Tolya. After that she hurried back to her room, where she shoved the pile of clothes off her bed, laid down and rubbed herself furiously until she came crying his name. Then she wrote a letter to Inej about the allure of men in gloves and all-consuming guilt.

Soon, a knock sounded at the door and when she shouted “come in,” Nadia poked her head into the room. 

“Saints, what happened in here?” Nina looked around. It did look like her trunk had exploded over most of the surfaces of the room. 

“I'm having a fancy dinner with Niko tonight and have no idea what to wear,” Nina sighed. 

“Well show me the options and I'll help you decide.” Nina tried to organize the mess she'd made, laying out one dress, then another. It had been a long time since Nina had had a friend like Nadia. She and Inej hadn't exactly spent their time looking at clothes and braiding each other’s hair. But Nina liked Nadia, and especially in this moment, she valued the presence of another woman. 

“Did you ever have lovers before Tamar?” Nina asked. 

“Not really,” Nadia said. “I kissed a few boys down by the Summoner Pavilions because it seemed like the thing to do when we were in school. But there wasn't anything serious. I had a bit of a crush on my best friend for a while, but she had no idea. And then she found a boyfriend, and then we ended up losing her in the war. By that point I met Tamar and started to realize there wouldn't be any more boys behind the pavilions, if you know what I mean.” 

“I'm sorry about your friend,” Nina said, reaching out to take Nadia’s hand. Nadia nodded and thanked her, squeezing her hand gently. 

“I'm sorry about Matthias. It's not fair to lose someone so young.” Nina choked up. 

“I feel so guilty. I'm here so I can take his body home, but there are days when I don't even think of him. I’m starting to forget his smell and the sound of his voice. And there are so many things we never got to talk about. So many things I never had the chance to ask him.” 

“I know, I know, Nina,” Nadia said, wiping the tears off her friend’s cheeks. 

“I want to ask Niko about these things - the things I didn't have time to ask Matthias about, but then I feel guilty that I could possibly learn more about Niko than I ever did about Matthias. I know that sounds stupid, but I'm just overwhelmed with this feeling that I don't deserve this.”

“Oh Nina, you can't punish yourself for moving on, for continuing to live. Don't you think Matthias would want you to be happy?” 

Nina nodded.

“I know you're right. It's just hard to come to terms with it.” Nadia murmured her agreement and kept rubbing Nina’s hand until the tears stopped. Finally Nina’s sniffling ceased and Nadia sighed. 

“It's not fair how beautiful you are, even when you're splotchy and red eyed with a dripping nose.” 

“Oh, stop,” Nina said, smiling despite herself. “I'm going to tell Tamar you snuck into my room to flirt with me.” 

Nadia laughed a roaring laugh. 

“Please do tell her that. Jealous Tamar is my favorite Tamar. Did I ever tell you about the time she thought I'd developed a crush on her brother?”

Nina howled, shaking the entire bed with her laughter. And they spent the afternoon that way, joking and talking about their pasts while sorting through Nina’s wardrobe.

\---- 

Nina settled on a dark, mossy green dress. It's something she would have worn in Ketterdam - sleeves that dripped off her dark shoulders, a deep neckline that showed off her ample cleavage. Altogether, she was dressed more seductively than the fashion in Ravka usually allowed. Nadia assured her that Niko’s eyes would fall out of his head when he saw her. 

Nadia had pilfered a bottle of kvas from the kitchens, and they shared it while they tried to tame Nina’s hair. Inevitably they became too tipsy to work a braid, so she left it down, curling in a riot around her shoulders. Then she closed her eyes and let Nadia draw a smudge of kohl across her eyes and a sweep of rouge over her high cheekbones. 

“There,” Nadia said, stepping back to survey her work. “You look perfect.”

“Come over here and let me do you,” Nina said, brandishing the stick of kohl slightly drunkenly. Nadia came close and let Nina sweep the kohl around her eyes, too. 

“Tamar won't know what hit her,” Nina said with a wink. 

They toasted one last mouthful of kvas. 

“To dinner,” Nina said.

“To love,” Nadia countered, clinking her glass against Nina’s.

“Or at least to sex,” Nina responded.

“Nina, you skeptic!” Laughed Nadia.

“Ok, fine, to love!” And they swallowed the last bit of their liquor before closing the door to Nina’s room tightly behind them.

\----

The formal dining room was just a couple doors down from Nikolai’s own quarters. He had planned to meet Nina in the hall outside his rooms and escort her down to the room where they'd take their dinner. Tolya was on duty, but had instructions to keep a discreet distance. 

Nina took his breath away when she appeared. She was more formally dressed than he'd seen her on the journey yet, looking like a queen as she made her way toward him in the full skirt, neck held high, the full sweep of her collarbone and cleavage tempting his eyes away from the glow of her eyes, where mischief shone.

As she came close and tucked her hand into the crook of his arm, he noticed the high flush of her cheeks, the scent of kvas and - was that his soap? - clung to her. 

A drunk queen then. His favorite kind. 

“You look amazing,” Nikolai murmured as he stopped at the dining room door. He stopped to kiss her cheek and whisper in her ear. “I want to rip this off you.”

Nina laughed loudly, then reached up to bring his mouth down to hers, carding her fingers through his hair. 

There was something wild about her tonight that had Nikolai already feeling his control slipping. His hands ran over the bodice of her dress while he kissed her, thumbs skimming the bottom curve of her breasts. She arched into his gloved hands. 

“I haven't been able to stop thinking of you since this morning.” He'd almost immediately regretted leaving her to see to ship business that morning, and had already told Marco, his first mate, not to expect him at the helm tomorrow. 

“I’ve felt the same way all day,” Nina admitted. “Although Nadia came by to keep my mind off you for an hour or two.” 

Nikolai’s eyebrows raised. 

“Did she now? Should Tamar and I be worried?” Nikolai was just giving her a hard time, of course. He’d never met a more dedicated couple than Tamar and Nadia. 

“She's not really my type,” Nina said with a wink. 

“Are you hungry?” He asked as they pushed open the door to the dining room. 

“Do you really have to ask?” 

Anton had outdone himself. The dark wood table was piled high with a beautiful feast for two. The room was dim, but candles were lit throughout, casting a glow over the lavishly decorated room. As promised, there was an abandoned harp set up in one corner. 

Nikolai led her to one of the ornately carved chairs, settling her at the table before crossing to the chair opposite her. He couldn't help imagining dining with her in one of the beautiful private dining rooms at the Grand Palace. 

Since the war and his coronation two years before, the Grand Palace was a more serious place than it once had been. He'd never wanted to be King for the parties or the courtiers or grandiose Palace. But it had all been part and parcel of growing up in the royal family. He never imagine his reign would be riddled with financial troubles for the crown, or the austerity measures of a country rebuilding after war. 

There were many days when the Grand Palace felt cold and lonely and too large, a shade of the opulent place he had grown up. But then again, Nikolai as the King often felt like a shade of the young man he had once been, who spent his days traveling the world, working as a privateer, and tinkering with his flying machines. He had been happy then, if not necessarily content with his lot in life. Nowadays in Os Alta, Nikolai wasn't sure if he was either happy or content. 

But in Nina’s presence, Nikolai felt different. Nina was quick to laugh and she did everything with an enthusiasm and passion that inspired him. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked her. She was watching him thoughtfully as she sipped her champagne. 

“Take those off.” She nodded toward his hand, which was curled around his own champagne glass, gloved.

“This is a nice dinner. I don't want to ruin it -” 

But she cut him off. 

“What? With the sight of the beautiful, strong hands I enjoyed so much last night?” Her eyebrows arched suggestively and she laid her hands out on the table between them, palms up. He looked down at her unmarred fingertips and then up into her beautiful eyes. He finally gave in and laid his still-gloved hands on top of hers. 

She clasped his hands tightly in her own with a squeeze, running her thumbs across the back of his hands. She slowly started to pull the gloves from his hands. 

“You. Are. Not. A. Monster.” She said as she pulled one finger after another free. He had to resist the urge to curl his hands up to hide the twisted, nearly claw-like nails. “If you need me to remind you of that fact every day for the rest of your life, I will. Although it will cost you. I'd prefer to be compensated in chocolate, but I'll also receive payment in the form of jewelry and sexual favors.” Nikolai laughed and gulped down his glass of champagne. The crystal was cold and smooth against his bare hand. 

“Please don't forget that I'm not exactly free of my own dark shadows, Niko,” Nina said thoughtfully. “My wickedness isn't carved into my skin, but it's still there, fueling my dark powers.” 

Nikolai smiled at her nervously. He didn't tell her that it wasn't exactly the same, but he appreciated the thought.

“Does it ever scare you? To know what's lurking inside us both? What we might - unleash - together?” A wicked gleam passed over Nina’s face. 

“Oh yes, darling. I'm positively shaking in my boots.” Her laugh rang out loud and clear in the dining room. She rubbed her hands together. “Luckily my sheer terror over the thought has not dampened my appetite.”

And then her pillage of the feast between them began. 

That evening they laughed and ate themselves sick. Nina ate with a fervor that he so rarely saw in other Ravkan women, especially women at court. He watched her intensely as she lifted bite after bite to her lips, tasting everything, and savoring it all. The way her long eyelashes fluttered shut for a second, the way her tongue darted out to catch a stray morsel at the corner of her mouth, the small noises from the back of her throat as she feasted on his favorite foods, had him gulping down his champagne, then brandy, at an almost alarming rate. 

Having spent so much time hiding behind his leather gloves, everything felt more intense, more real with his bare hands. The cool press of his silver fork. The smooth lines of his cut crystal brandy snifter. The slender neck of a cherry stem as he plucked it from the top of his dessert. Nina daintily patted at the corners of her mouth with a linen napkin. His fingers twitched beside his glass of brandy again, aching to reach across the table and touch her face, the curls of her hair. 

He felt heady and on edge from the alcohol, from the decadent food, from the sight of the flush of Nina’s cheeks and chest above the plunging neckline of her dress. It was almost too much to see her exist in front of him with so much passion, to live wild with abandon. He had been that way once, he thought, and missed it.

This woman across from him, riddled with her own kind of death, Nikolai decided, made him want to really live again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nina and Niko take things to the next level. (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to follow along at my Tumblr: @ablackbirdsinging

Nina threw open the door to the dining room, dragging Niko by a bare hand down the hall to his rooms. They stumbled tipsily past Tolya who pressed his back into the wall to let them pass. 

They had barely shut the door to Niko’s antechamber before he backed her up against the wall, nipping roughly at her neck, bare hands raking over the green silk pulled tight over her stomach. 

“If this is too soon -” he murmured against the skin below her ear.

“Niko, it’s not too soon. It's borderline too late. If you don't shut up and start -” but he cut her off, covering her mouth with his own. The sound of her moan sent a shiver down both their spines. She knew Tolya and his hyper-acute Heartrender senses was stationed on the other side of the wall she was currently pressed against, but she couldn't find it in herself to be self-conscious of her reactions to Niko’s body against hers, the feel of his tongue sweeping against her own, the sensation of his claw-like fingers pushing the cups of her dress down to gain access to her breasts. 

“I love these,” Niko said, as he traced a fingernail around her nipple, then bent his head to chase his fingers with his tongue. Nina’s head flew back into the wall at her back with a loud thunk. Niko’s hand wrapped around her to squeeze her ass, kneading her roughly. “I love this too,” he said looking up from where his tongue had been circling her nipple. 

She squirmed in his hands. 

“There's too much fucking dress in the way,” she complained. Niko laughed.

“Do those wicked powers of yours let you read my mind now, too?” 

“Just get me out of this infernal thing,” and she pulled away and flipped around so her front was pressed against the wall, exposing the back laces of her dress. Niko came close, working the laces while peppering the back of her neck and shoulders with kisses. She rolled her hips back to grind against his cock, already hard and straining against his trousers. He groaned, fingers stilling in the laces of her dress. 

“I'll never get you out of this if you keep distracting me like that,” he said, pressing himself against her backside so she could feel him through her skirt. He moved back a step and continued pulling at the laces. Finally he had the back loose enough that he could pull the dress down, letting it catch around her hips where Nina shimmied it down the rest of the way, then stepped out of the puddle of green silk. 

If she'd still been in possession of her Heartrender abilities she would have felt Niko’s heart stop when he realized, then restart in a ragged staccato. 

She was still facing the wall, smiling to herself, as she felt Niko’s gaze survey her backside. Then he grabbed a handful of her ass with a rough hand, twisted nails pressing into the dimpled flesh. 

“You sat through that entire dinner completely naked under your dress?” His voice was low and gravelly. Wrecked. 

Her laugh filled up the dark antechamber with light. 

“You ruined my undergarments last night. I only packed so many, you know. I didn't want to wear another pair just to have those ripped off me by those beautiful claws.” She turned around to face him, letting his gaze wash over her unbound breasts, the tuck of her waist as it flared into her wide hips, and lower still to the apex of her thighs, neatly trimmed. 

His knees hit the carpeted floor of the ship. 

“They're not beautiful.” 

“Do not argue with me, Niko. I like to win.” 

He looked up at her and licked his lips slowly. 

“I like that about you, you know?” She smiled back at him.

“And here I was thinking you only liked me for my tits and ass.” The breath from his answering laugh ghosted across her trembling thighs. 

“I like those too.” He nipped a bite into one of her thighs and she gasped, widening her stance to allow him more space between her legs. 

“Good girl,” he murmured, and then licked a wet stripe up her sex. Nina went stiff against the wall, then boneless as his tongue worked in and out of her, one scarred hand coming up to splay across her hips, thumb pressing against her clit. 

Shameless, she writhed against his mouth and hands as they worked her into a frenzy. One of her hands fisted Niko’s hair, while the other pinched and twisted her own nipple roughly in time with Niko’s tongue in her cunt. He used one of his hands to drag a thigh over his shoulder so he could take her deeper, and Nina immediately felt that familiar tightening in her core, the trembling of every muscle in her body as she neared the precipice then fell over the edge, orgasming around Niko’s tongue as he slowed to a gentle, tasting sweep of her body. 

When he stilled and moved away from her trembling thighs, she moved down the wall until she was crouched in front of him. He kissed her deeply, damp hands tangling in her hair, while she palmed him through his trousers. He watched her with wide eyes, pupils blown. 

“I want you inside of me,” she gasped, still breathing heavily from her orgasm, then tore at the buckle of his pants.

\----

They stumbled together toward Nikolai’s sleeping room, but didn't make it. As they came even with the desk, she stopped him and pressed his back to the edge of the great wooden monstrosity. 

His trousers and underwear were around his upper thighs as she worked her hand around his cock. His hands trembled at the buttons of his shirt, trying to get it off but finding himself distracted by her naked body pressed against him as her small hand slid over and around him, swiping her thumb over his head as precum beaded up at the slit. 

Finally he became so frustrated that he tore the shirt open, ripping the buttons straight off, hearing them fall like hail on the floor at their feet. 

Nina laughed. 

“Easy, Captain.” Her low voice, slurred from drink, shot another gallon of blood to his cock which throbbed helplessly in her hands. She dropped to her knees in front of him, watching him with those kohl-lined eyes. He almost told her she didn't have to do this, but he stopped himself. He knew by now that she didn't do anything she didn't want to do. 

She swept her curls back off her shoulders, away from her face, and then took the head of his cock into her mouth, swirling her tongue around him, then bobbing her head to take him deeper. 

It had been so long since he'd felt someone’s mouth on him, the feeling of wet heat and fingers rolling his balls. He’d forgotten what it felt like, to feel someone's hands on him beside his own grotesque claws. 

She relaxed her jaw to take him even deeper, the head of his cock nearly gagging her as she deep throated him.

He stuck his fisted hand against his mouth, biting his knuckle to suppress the filthy things he wanted to tell her. How good her mouth felt around him. How badly he wanted to grip her hair and fuck her mouth. How he wanted to cum inside her mouth, across her tits, then watch it drip down her golden skin. 

Too soon he felt himself start to lose control. Before he went too far and couldn't stop, he pulled back, then reached down to bring her to her feet. 

Her eyes were dark, her lips swollen and red from sucking his cock, her entire body trembling with her want for him. 

They made it to the couch. 

Once she was settled there, head propped on the armrest so her curls fell over the side in a curtain, he ran two fingers through her wet pussy and curled them inside her. She was still hot and wet from her orgasm against the wall. He pulled his fingers out and let her watch as he slowly licked them clean. She reached up to his kiss him, hard. He could tell she was impatient. 

When the head of his cock nudged against her, she rolled her hips up into him, breathing “yes” into his mouth. An answer to his unasked question. 

And then he pushed into her, sheathing himself deep inside her body. Her head fell back even further, exposing the long long line of her throat, and he ran his tongue there from collarbone to the curve of her ear. She bucked her hips up into him, urging him to move, but he wanted to take his time. 

He rolled his hips slowly, relishing the feel of her around him, the tremble of her body as she tried to keep some semblance of composure. He licked her lips until she opened them to him and swept inside her mouth. He slowly pulled out of her and just as the head of his cocked slipped free, he plunged back inside her, all the way to the hilt.

Nina’s eyes flew open, to watch him as he pulled out of her again and again, only to slide back into her each time. 

\----

Nina’s restraint was slipping. Niko moved inside her, gently, agonizingly slow, almost polite, building that slow heat in her core again.

She moved against him roughly, pressing sharp half mooned finger nail marks into his shoulders, his biceps, where dark strands of pain and death roiled under the skin, trying to gain purchase where she needed it most. 

She kissed him again and bit his lip until she tasted his blood on her tongue. 

“I am not a doll, Niko.” She whispered darkly into his ear. “And you're not a prince.” She felt him pause inside her. “So fuck me like a pirate takes his whore.” 

His hips stuttered hard against her own, once, twice, and her breath caught in her throat. 

“It's privateer.”

And then he was moving hard and fast, pushing her knees down into the worn leather couch and fucking her deep. His hips crashed against hers as she arched off the couch, finally feeling the friction on her clit that she needed. She pulled her knees up to rest against his chest and his eyes went wide as he hit a new spot inside her that had her keening. 

“Harder, harder,” she begged him, urging him on. He moved inside of her furiously, just this side of painful, but she knew she would be sore tomorrow. His fingers grasped her waist in a bruising grip, and she raked her nails down his chest, leaving red marks in her wake. 

She could feel his rhythm start to stutter as his eyes started to roll back in his head. She bucked her hips to meet him as another orgasm tore through her and then Niko was coming apart, roaring as he came hard inside her, and collapsed on her chest. 

She stroked his hair, his shoulders, his face as he came down, trembling. 

“Are you ok?” He asked her, kissing her chastely at the corner of her mouth. She chuckled.

“Are you kidding me? I am much much better than ok.” And she kissed him harder, grinding her hips against his where their bodies were still joined. Unbidden, his cock gave a twitch inside her, already hardening again. Nina gave him a wicked smile. He nipped a biting kiss at the edge of her jaw.

“You're incorrigible.”

“Does that mean you're going to fuck me again?” He was already starting to move inside her. 

“Yes, yes it does.”


	7. Bonus Scene: Nadia/Tamar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bonus scene of Nadia/Tamar (explicit) after Nadia leaves Nina's room in Chapter 5.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to follow along on Tumblr: @ablackbirdsinging

Tamar felt the beat of Nadia’s heart in the hall before she heard her lilting giggle or saw her flushed face peeking around the door of the small room she called her office. 

“Are you busy?” Tamar put down the pen she'd been holding a moment before and shuffled her papers to the side of the desk. 

“Of course not.” She was never too busy when Nadia was concerned. 

“Good,” Nadia said as she wandered further into the room cluttered with Tamar’s paperwork and weapons. She stooped to kiss her at the desk where Tamar still sat, then perched on the desktop. There were dark smudges around her eyes that brought out the blue color, perfectly matched to the Squaller blue of her kefta. 

“Are you drunk?” 

“Who me? Drunk?” Nadia fluttered her eyelashes innocently. Tamar grabbed a handful of her kefta and pulled her mouth down to kiss her again. Then licked her own lips.

“Yep, you definitely taste like kvas.” Nadia giggled.

“Nina’s having a fancy date with Nikolai tonight. The kvas was for her nerves.”

“And the kvas on your breath? Was that for your nerves?” Tamar asked her girlfriend with a mischievous smirk. Nadia blushed.

“You know you don't make me nervous. Anymore.” Tamar laughed, remembering both of their nerves when their relationship first started. How long it took to even reach across the small spaces they shared back then to grasp each other’s hand. The way they slowly moved for weeks toward the other for their first kiss. 

While the world was speeding toward war and mass-destruction at a breakneck pace, they'd been moving in slow motion. Together. Timid and nervous and fumbling, but also hopeful. 

Two years later, none of their hesitancy remained. Tamar stood up and settled herself between Nadia’s legs where they kicked against the drawers of Tamar’s desk. She took her face in her hands and kissed her thoroughly, then pulled back to rest their foreheads together. 

“I love you, Nadia.” 

“I love you too, Tamar.” Tamar’s breath hitched. It never got old hearing Nadia say those words. Nadia’s hands reached up to run her fingers through Tamar’s short, dark hair. 

“Do you want to go back to our room?” Tamar asked, hopefully. 

“No,” Nadia said, placing a chaste kiss on Tamar’s mouth. “I want you right here.” Tamar’s center clenched with need. 

She pulled Nadia toward her, kissing her deeply, and tangling her hands in her lover’s long hair. Tamar’s strong nimble fingers started working on the clasps of Nadia’s kefta. 

She knew these clasps like the back of her hand, could undress Nadia blind in the middle of a blizzard if it came to that. Her fingers made quick work of the clasps and then pushed the thick blue material off of Nadia’s shoulders and arms, to fall with a thump on the desk behind her. She was wearing a simple gray dress, buttoned up the front, under her kefta, and Tamar went to work undoing the buttons as Nadia squirmed beneath her hands. When it was unbuttoned down to her navel, Tamar reached into the dress to palm her lover’s breasts. Nadia moaned and arched her back into her hands. 

Then Nadia was scrambling to pull Tamar’s tunic up over her head. Beneath the tunic, Tamar’s small breasts were bound in a strip of fabric. Nadia’s strong Summoner hands scrambled to loosen the binding, eager to get that delicate skin under her fingertips. She circled one of Tamar’s nipples with one long finger, as the other hand went up to cradle her face, kissing her thoroughly. 

Tamar lifted Nadia easily from the desk, setting her down on her feet and giving the loose dress a tug so it fell off Nadia’s slim figure. Tamar groaned as she noticed the little scrap of black lace underwear Nadia wore. 

“Do you like these?” Nadia asked, looking down at herself and shifting her hips a little. “I picked them up in Os Alta before we left.” 

“Yes, Nadia,” Tamar said with a gulp. “I like them very much.” Nadia laughed. 

“In that case, I intend to order them in every color available.” Tamar ran a finger over the lace covering Nadia’s pubic bone and then reached lower until her finger rubbed against a patch of wet fabric between her legs.

“I'll never get any work done.” 

“My apologies to the King,” Nadia said with a shrug. Then she was peeling Tamar’s leggings down, revealing the simple off-white underwear Tamar wore. It was nothing fancy, but the sight still had Nadia aching to touch her. 

They kissed deeply as Nadia peeled the waistband of Tamar’s underwear away, reaching inside to run her hand through the short curls there. Tamar trembled against her hand, rolling her hips up to get Nadia to touch her even lower.

“Patience, love,” Nadia murmured against her lips, but her neatly manicured fingers stretched further, parting Tamar’s wet folds while the older woman writhed against her hand. Tamar picked up the pace, stroking Nadia on the outside of her lacy panties. 

“I want you to taste me,” Nadia moaned, and Tamar dropped to her knees without hesitation. 

Nadia leaned against the desk and Tamar licked her thoroughly over the lace, hand curving around Nadia’s backside to play with the thin strip of fabric stretching between the cheeks of her ass. Nadia groaned and pushed herself further against Tamar’s mouth. After entirely too long, Tamar’s pulled the panties to the side with one hand, finally tasting Nadia without the lace in the way. 

She lapped enthusiastically at Nadia’s cunt, tongue plunging in and out of her in an artful rhythm, fingers holding back the lace drumming a pattern over her clit. Nadia was falling apart above her, pulling Tamar’s hair, and roughly grinding her pussy into her face. Finally, Tamar felt Nadia’s body pulse hard around her tongue, and a wave of moisture flooded her mouth.

Tamar stayed on her knees and watched as Nadia gasped for breath, trying to compose herself. 

“Rug or desk?” Nadia finally asked. Tamar's eyes shone with appreciation for the beautiful woman above her. 

“Rug.” And Nadia pulled Tamar to standing, dragging her over to the Shu-made rug in front of the brightly burning brazier, then gently laying her down. 

Nadia straddled Tamar’s waist, kissing her deeply, before moving down her body, leaving a trail of bites and kisses as she went.

Finally, she rested between Tamar’s legs, peeling her underwear down her legs and throwing it behind her. Kneeling, she rubbed Tamar’s sex until she was panting and squirming around her. Then she slipped a finger inside her, watching the way Tamar’s eyes squeezed shut in bliss at the feeling of her finger sliding in and out. Nadia added another finger, then leaned down to nip gently at Tamar’s clit. Her lover’s hips jumped off the rug at the feeling and Nadia laughed against her pussy. 

“You like that, do you?” And she did it again. 

“Saints, Nadia,” Tamar moaned. Nadia worked her fingers in and out faster as she laved her clit with her tongue and teeth, feeling Tamar trembling and clenching around her. Just as Tamar was nearing the edge of her orgasm, Nadia pulled away. The loss of contact had Tamar writhing uncomfortably, looking for that needed friction to finish. 

And then Nadia went back to straddling Tamar, stretching one leg up toward Tamar’s face as she rubbed their pussies together. 

The two women moaned in unison as their hips stuttered together, slip-sliding over their wet centers. Tamar reached down to move the lace underwear out of the way again, to thumb at Nadia’s clit, while she ground her hips into Tamar’s naked body. 

“Saints this is good,” Tamar groaned. “So good Nadia. Don't stop. Don't stop,” she urged her on. Nadia’s hips kept moving, fucking against Tamar’s thumb on her clit and wet cunt below her until she called out raggedly, coming again over her lover.

“Tell me what you want, Tamar. What you need to come. I want to see you come screaming my name.” Hearing the filthy words in Nadia’s sweet mouth, had Tamar already bucking her hips with abandon. 

“Touch me,” Tamar moaned desperately. Nadia slipped her hand between them, sliding easily between Tamar’s folds. “Not there,” Tamar gasped, and Nadia understood. She swirled her middle finger through the slick wetness between them, then reached behind her to press against Tamar’s puckered hole. She slipped her finger inside her, just past her fingernail and felt Tamar clench around her tightly. 

Carefully, Nadia continued to press into Tamar, while she messily thrust her dripping pussy into Tamar’s. Tamar was hot and tight and suddenly her head dropped back, eyes clenched shut, as her orgasm started to rip through her. 

“Harder Nadia,” she cried, and Nadia threw caution to the wind, finger fucking her lover as she screamed and screamed her name, until Nadia leaned down and stole the words from her mouth with a kiss.


End file.
